Lewis Hamilton scored a dominant victory at the Chinese Grand Prix, leading the race from start to finish. Nico Rosberg recovered from a difficult start to finish second while Fernando Alonso secured Ferrari's first podium of the season.
In recent years there have been 4 German drivers in front of him in the queue for seats and sponsors - Schumacher, Vettel, Rosberg, Sutil. So that excludes Force India, RB and Merc. Obviously Ferari have their own unique dynamics when it comes to driver selection and McLaren have gone from the UK dream line up to chaotic fumbling.henra wrote:Team Bosses were all very reluctant to hire him. Strange.
And what did his 9th in Bahrain tell you? Or maybe China was a flattering track for the Ferrari? Alonso did a good job but also everyone else did a poor one, now if he had finished ahead of ROS I would give him major props, but he didn't.zeph wrote:Races like this reaffirm my belief that Alonso is currently the best driver all around.
But the highlight of the race was Kobayashi overtaking Vettel and the latter's reaction. Now THAT was funny!
I think they put the flag out because it was so boring, dummies, they put out the wrong flag.Vettel Maggot wrote:That race was quite boring, not much happening due to lack of safety car. Lewis is just cruising around isn't he, life is good, people questioned his move to Mercedes but it's paid off. The flag being brought out 2 laps early was interesting, thank God it wasn't a Bahrain type race with lots of overtaking 2 laps from the end, can you imagine?
Alonsos undercutDe Jokke wrote:Quick question guys, how come hamilton lost like 8seconds after his first stop.
He was 12 up and came out the pits with 4 left (ok he went of due to tyres getting old but this wasn't 8 secs)
any ideas?
He stayed out on the old softs putting in good lap times but not as fast as Alonso on new Mediums, I guess they are calling that undercut these daysDe Jokke wrote:Quick question guys, how come hamilton lost like 8seconds after his first stop.
He was 12 up and came out the pits with 4 left (ok he went of due to tyres getting old but this wasn't 8 secs)
any ideas?
Alonzo pitted on L11 and turned 1:43s on the new tires. Hamilton turned 1:44s from lap 12 until his pit on 17, so there's 5 seconds right there. And he had a small off before he pitted so his inlap was about 2 seconds slower than Alonzo's inlap. So that's now 7 seconds. Hamilton's outlap was also a second slower, so that's 8 by the time they crossed the line to start 19.Powershift wrote:He stayed out on the old softs putting in good lap times but not as fast as Alonso on new Mediums, I guess they are calling that undercut these days
He's nowhere near Alonso, especially in China. What was so special about this yet another solid 6th place? Massa had pitstop problem, Bottas had no telemetry, was bumped at the start and finished 1 s behind.prince wrote: There is another "Alonso" who drives now for Force India by the name of Nico. What a driver he is, truly amazing. No matter which team, which car, he pop up to score highly valuable points for his team. Ferrari must be ruing for rejecting him.
I dunno. Hulkenberg is pretty good, but "Alonso" good? He didn't blow me away last weekend. He started from P8 and finished sixth, one position given to him by Massa's pitstop fail. So effectively he overtook Bottas, another driver hailed as a future champion, but I haven't seen it yet.prince wrote:There is another "Alonso" who drives now for Force India by the name of Nico. What a driver he is, truly amazing. No matter which team, which car, he pop up to score highly valuable points for his team. Ferrari must be ruing for rejecting him.zeph wrote:Races like this reaffirm my belief that Alonso is currently the best driver all around.
But the highlight of the race was Kobayashi overtaking Vettel and the latter's reaction. Now THAT was funny!
Yea sponsorship as far as Mclaren was concerned and as for Ferrari, I think they chose the safer bet, Kimi is already a world champion and he had some pretty solid drives with Lotus so they were probably charmed by his consistency. I was hoping Hulkenberg would land the Lotus drive but I'm now glad he didn't. His size doesn't help him either but I'm sure he'll get a good drive in the coming seasons.zeph wrote:I dunno. Hulkenberg is pretty good, but "Alonso" good? He didn't blow me away last weekend. He started from P8 and finished sixth, one position given to him by Massa's pitstop fail. So effectively he overtook Bottas, another driver hailed as a future champion, but I haven't seen it yet.prince wrote:There is another "Alonso" who drives now for Force India by the name of Nico. What a driver he is, truly amazing. No matter which team, which car, he pop up to score highly valuable points for his team. Ferrari must be ruing for rejecting him.zeph wrote:Races like this reaffirm my belief that Alonso is currently the best driver all around.
But the highlight of the race was Kobayashi overtaking Vettel and the latter's reaction. Now THAT was funny!
I don't doubt Hulkenberg can win races, but I wouldn't put him in the same class as Alonso yet. And I figure there must be a reason why both McLaren and Ferrari decided to pass on him.
I doubt lack of sponsorship was a factor for McLaren. If that was important, why did they get rid of Perez who had big sponsors in his corner (Telmex/Carlos Slim)? And what does Kevin Magnussen bring to the table?Multi21 wrote:Yea sponsorship as far as Mclaren was concerned and as for Ferrari, I think they chose the safer bet, Kimi is already a world champion and he had some pretty solid drives with Lotus so they were probably charmed by his consistency.zeph wrote: I don't doubt Hulkenberg can win races, but I wouldn't put him in the same class as Alonso yet. And I figure there must be a reason why both McLaren and Ferrari decided to pass on him.
I think it was the angle and the nature of the contact that saved it. The angle was pretty much in the direction the suspension is designed to take load in. Also, it looked like it was tyre on tyre, so it's a relatively cushioned blow.gray41 wrote:I can't believe his suspension didn't break.
